A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF USCG VESSEL LILAC: AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPLICATION OF ACCESS ANALYSIS

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between society and space by analyzing the perceptual structure, placement, or arrangement of space (i.e., spatial patterning) onboard Lilac, a lighthouse and buoy tender that operated as part of the United States Lighthouse Service (USLS) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG). During an active career spanning from 1933-1972, Lilac was responsible for maintaining navigational aids on the Delaware River, the Delaware Bay, and the Delaware Bay’s approaches from the Atlantic Ocean. Drawing from Hillier and Hanson’s space syntax theory (1984), a method of access analysis will be used to elucidate the spatial patterning on Lilac and the social structure which both produced it and was structured by it to maintain a rank-based hierarchy among USLS and USCG servicemembers.